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Knowledge is Power - Share the Power

1995

(1880) A South Seas paradise becomes a French colonyKing Pōmare V cedes a 403-square-mile island in the remote South Pacific to France as he abdicates his throne under pressure from his chiefs. Tahiti will be the crown jewel of French Polynesia, but indigenous Tahitians will have to wait until 1946 for full French citizenship.Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia; this overseas collectivity of the French Republic is sometimes referred to as a French overseas country. The island is located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the central Southern Pacific Ocean, and is divided into two parts: The bigger, northwestern part Tahiti Nui and the smaller, southeastern part Tahiti Iti. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous with surrounding coral reefs. The population is 183,645 inhabitants, making it the most populous island of French Polynesia and accounting for 68.5 percent of its total population.

wiki/Tahiti(1943) A president reassures physicist working on The BombA clash between General Leslie Groves and physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer threatens to derail a top-secret American military project in the New Mexico desert, and President Franklin Roosevelt intervenes with a letter of heartfelt support written to get the Manhattan Project back on track.

The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed the actual bombs. The Army component of the project was designated the Manhattan District; “Manhattan” gradually superseded the official codename, Development of Substitute Materials, for the entire project. Along the way, the project absorbed its earlier British counterpart, Tube Alloys. The Manhattan Project began modestly in 1939, but grew to employ more than 130,000 people and cost nearly US $2 billion (about $27 billion in 2016 dollars). Over 90% of the cost was for building factories and to produce fissile material, with less than 10% for development and production of the weapons. Research and production took place at more than 30 sites across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Two types of atomic bombs were developed concurrently during the war: a relatively simple gun-type fission weapon and a more complex implosion-type nuclear weapon. The Thin Man gun-type design proved impractical to use with plutonium so a simpler gun-type called Little Boy was developed that used uranium-235, an isotope that makes up only 0.7 percent of natural uranium. Chemically identical to the most common isotope, uranium-238, and with almost the same mass, it proved difficult to separate the two. Three methods were employed for uranium enrichment: electromagnetic, gaseous and thermal. Most of this work was performed at the Clinton Engineer Works at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

In parallel with the work on uranium was an effort to produce plutonium. After the feasibility of the world’s first artificial nuclear reactor was demonstrated in Chicago at the Metallurgical Laboratory, it designed the X-10 Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge and the production reactors in Hanford, Washington, in which uranium was irradiated and transmuted into plutonium. The plutonium was then chemically separated from the uranium. The Fat Man implosion-type weapon was developed in a concerted design and development effort by the Los Alamos Laboratory.

The project was also charged with gathering intelligence on the German nuclear weapon project. Through Operation Alsos, Manhattan Project personnel served in Europe, sometimes behind enemy lines, where they gathered nuclear materials and documents, and rounded up German scientists. Despite the Manhattan Project’s tight security, Soviet atomic spies still penetrated the program.

The first nuclear device ever detonated was an implosion-type bomb at the Trinity test, conducted at New Mexico’s Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range on 16 July 1945. Little Boy and Fat Man bombs were used a month later in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively. In the immediate postwar years, the Manhattan Project conducted weapons testing at Bikini Atoll as part of Operation Crossroads, developed new weapons, promoted the development of the network of national laboratories, supported medical research into radiology and laid the foundations for the nuclear navy. It maintained control over American atomic weapons research and production until the formation of the United States Atomic Energy Commission in January 1947.

wiki/Manhattan_Project(1967) Nonexistent pot and four uppers nail Jagger and RichardsA salacious trial in England wraps up after a drug bust at Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richard’s home. No “indian hemp” was actually found, and singer Mick Jagger had only four amphetamine pills, but they’re both convicted and sentenced to prison, Jagger for three months and Richards a year. They’ll spend just two days in prison before the convictions are thrown out.(1995) Statecraft in space as an American shuttle meets the MirFor the first time in history a US space shuttle docks with a Russian space station, as Atlantis shuttle commander Robert ‘Hoot’ Gibson pilots his craft at 17,500 mph to dock with the massive Mir space station. Their meeting creates the largest manmade object ever to orbit the earth.

The Shuttle–Mir Program was a collaborative space program between Russia and the United States, which involved American Space Shuttles visiting the Russian space station Mir, Russian cosmonauts flying on the shuttle, and an American astronaut flying aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to engage in long-duration expeditions aboard Mir.

The project, sometimes called “Phase One”, was intended to allow the United States to learn from Russian experience with long-duration spaceflight and to foster a spirit of cooperation between the two nations and their space agencies, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos). The project helped to prepare the way for further cooperative space ventures; specifically, “Phase Two” of the joint project, the construction of the International Space Station (ISS). The program was announced in 1993, the first mission started in 1994 and the project continued until its scheduled completion in 1998. Eleven Space Shuttle missions, a joint Soyuz flight and almost 1000 cumulative days in space for American astronauts occurred over the course of seven long-duration expeditions.

During the four-year program, many firsts in spaceflight were achieved by the two nations, including the first American astronaut to launch aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, the largest spacecraft ever to have been assembled at that time in history, and the first American spacewalk using a Russian Orlan spacesuit.

The program was marred by various concerns, notably the safety of Mir following a fire and a collision, financial issues with the cash-strapped Russian Space Program and worries from astronauts about the attitudes of the program administrators. Nevertheless, a large amount of science, expertise in space station construction and knowledge in working in a cooperative space venture was gained from the combined operations, allowing the construction of the ISS to proceed much more smoothly than would have otherwise been the case.

(1846) US declares war on its neighborThe US annexation of Texas the previous year lit the tinder between neighboring nations, and now the conflict explodes into the Mexican-American War as the US Congress votes in favor of President Polk’s request for military action. The two-year conflict will end in Mexico’s defeat and the loss of about half its national territory.The Mexican–American War, also known as the Mexican War, the U.S.–Mexican War, the U.S.–Mexico War or the Invasion of Mexico, was an armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States from 1846 to 1848. It followed in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory in spite of its de facto secession in the 1836 Texas Revolution.

Start date: Apr 25, 1846End date: Feb 03, 1848

wiki/Mexican–American_War(1981) Pope John Paul II shot in assassination attemptFour bullets hit Pope John Paul II as he enters Rome’s St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. While the Pope is rushed to the hospital, police capture Mehmet Ali Ağca, of Turkey. The Pope will later forgive his would-be assassin, asking for his crime to be pardoned, and meeting with him in prison.The first attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II took place on Wednesday, 13 May 1981, in St. Peter’s Square at Vatican City. The Pope was shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca while he was entering the square. The Pope was struck four times, and suffered severe blood loss. Ağca was apprehended immediately, and later sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court. The Pope later forgave Ağca for the assassination attempt. He was pardoned by Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at the Pope’s request and was deported to Turkey in June 2000.

Date: May 13, 1981

wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II_assassination_attempt(1995) Everest summited by unassisted female climberAccomplished mountaineer, and 33-year-old mother of two, Alison Hargreaves makes history as the first woman to conquer Mt. Everest without the help of Sherpa guides or bottled oxygen. Sadly, she will perish after summiting another Himalayan giant, K2, exactly three months later.Alison Jane Hargreaves was a British mountain climber. Her accomplishments included scaling Mount Everest alone, without supplementary oxygen or support from a Sherpa team, in 1995. She soloed all the great north faces of the Alps in a single season—a first for any climber. This feat included climbing the difficult north face of the Eiger in the Alps, in 1988. Hargreaves also climbed 6,812-metre Ama Dablam in Nepal.

wiki/Alison_Hargreaves(1938) Armstrong records ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’Jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong records the traditional gospel hymn in a Dixieland-jazz style. Though it isn’t the first jazz version of the song, Armstrong’s recording will turn it into a jazz standard that will be covered by hundreds of artists and find a place in pop culture and sports.“When the Saints Go Marching In”, often referred to as “The Saints”, is an American gospel hymn. Though it originated as a Christian hymn, it is often played by jazz bands. This song was famously recorded on May 13, 1938 by Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra. The song is sometimes confused with a similarly titled composition “When the Saints are Marching In” from 1896 by Katharine Purvis and James Milton Black.

(1775) American Revolutionary War beginsThirteen colonies enter the bloody struggle to break free from the crown, as British troops arrive in Lexington, Massachusetts, intent on seizing the patriots’ weapons and imprisoning its leaders. Shots are exchanged, eight Americans die, and the war for independence is on.The American Revolutionary War, also referred to as the American War of Independence and as the Revolutionary War in the United States, was an armed conflict between Great Britain and those thirteen of its North American colonies which after the onset of the war declared independence as the United States of America.

Start date: Apr 19, 1775End date: Sep 03, 1783

wiki/American_Revolutionary_War(1897) First running of the Boston MarathonInspired by the revival of the Olympic Games the year before and the invention there of the marathon running race, the Boston Athletic Association puts on its own footrace. Fifteen runners take off from the starting line, and 10 finish the 24.5-mile hilly route in Boston’s first marathon.The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon hosted by several cities in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is always held on Patriots’ Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, inspired by the success of the first marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics, the Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest annual marathon and ranks as one of the world’s best-known road racing events. It is one of six World Marathon Majors, and is one of five major events held in the United States through the years of both World Wars.

First occurred: Apr 19, 1897

wiki/Boston_Marathon(1943) Jewish resistance fighters battle in Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Hundreds of thousands of Jews have been packed by Nazis inside the Warsaw Ghetto, a 1.3-square-mile sector in Poland’s capital. Thousands have already died of disease and starvation, but today many fight back when Germans attempt to ship off the ghetto’s survivors to concentration camps.The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany’s final effort to transport the remaining Ghetto population to Treblinka. The uprising started on 19 April when the Ghetto refused to surrender to the police commander SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop, who then ordered the burning of the Ghetto, block by block, ending on 16 May. A total of 13,000 Jews died, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated. German casualties are not known, but were not more than 300. It was the largest single revolt by Jews during World War II.

The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Downtown, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States on April 19, 1995. Carried out by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the bombing destroyed one-third of the building, killed 168 people, and injured more than 680 others. The blast destroyed or damaged 324 other buildings within a 16-block radius, shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings, and destroyed or burned 86 cars, causing an estimated $652 million worth of damage. Extensive rescue efforts were undertaken by local, state, federal, and worldwide agencies in the wake of the bombing, and substantial donations were received from across the country. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) activated eleven of its Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces, consisting of 665 rescue workers who assisted in rescue and recovery operations. This was the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil until the September 11 attacks six years later, and it still remains as the deadliest domestic terrorism incident in United States history.

Within 90 minutes of the explosion, McVeigh was stopped by Oklahoma Highway Patrolman Charlie Hanger for driving without a license plate and arrested for illegal weapons possession. Forensic evidence quickly linked McVeigh and Nichols to the attack; Nichols was arrested, and within days, both were charged. Michael and Lori Fortier were later identified as accomplices. McVeigh, who was a U.S. militia movement sympathizer and a veteran in the Gulf War, had detonated a Ryder rental truck full of explosives parked in front of the building. His co-conspirator, Nichols, had assisted in the bomb preparation. Motivated by his dislike for the U.S. federal government and angry about its handling of the Ruby Ridge incident in 1992 and the Waco Siege in 1993, McVeigh timed his attack to coincide with the second anniversary of the deadly fire that ended the siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.

The official investigation, known as “OKBOMB”, saw FBI agents conduct 28,000 interviews, amass 3.5 short tons (3.2 tonnes) of evidence, and collect nearly one billion pieces of information. The bombers were tried and convicted in 1997. McVeigh was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001, and Nichols was sentenced to life in prison in 2004. Michael and Lori Fortier testified against McVeigh and Nichols; Michael was sentenced to 12 years in prison for failing to warn the United States government, and Lori received immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony.

As a result of the bombing, the U.S. Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which tightened the standards for habeas corpus in the United States, as well as legislation designed to increase the protection around federal buildings to deter future terrorist attacks. On April 19, 2000, the Oklahoma City National Memorial was dedicated on the site of the Murrah Federal Building, commemorating the victims of the bombing. Annual remembrance services are held at the same time of day as the explosion occurred.

The British Natural History Museum reveals that its treasured Piltdown Man fossil is a fake. The skull fragments, discovered in 1912, purported to be the missing link between apes and humans. Scientists confirm that the bones, skillfully doctored and stained, came from an orangutan and a human..

The Piltdown Man was a paleoanthropological hoax in which bone fragments were presented as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human. In 1912 amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson claimed he had discovered the “missing link” between ape and man. After finding a section of a human-like skull in Pleistocene gravel beds near Piltdown, East Sussex, Dawson contacted Arthur Smith Woodward, Keeper of Geology at the Natural History Museum. Dawson and Smith Woodward made further discoveries at the site which they connected to the same individual, including a jawbone, more skull fragments, a set of teeth and primitive tools.

Date: 1912

— Source: wiki/Piltdown_Man

(1980) Fire at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas kills 87 people

In the early morning, a fire breaks out in a ground floor deli at the luxury hotel-casino MGM Grand and quickly spreads as it hits flammable plastics in the casino. Eighty-seven people will die, mainly from smoke inhalation. The fire will rank among the deadliest in the US. .

The MGM Grand fire occurred on November 21, 1980 at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Paradise, Nevada, USA. The fire killed 85 people, most through smoke inhalation. The tragedy remains the worst disaster in Nevada history, and the third-worst hotel fire in modern U.S. history, after the 1946 Winecoff Hotel fire in Atlanta that killed 119 people and the Dupont Plaza Hotel, San Juan, Puerto Rico fire on December 31, 1986, in which 97 perished.

Fatalities: 87Date: Nov 21, 1980

— Source: wiki/MGM_Grand_fire

(1985) US authorities arrest Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard

Jonathan Pollard, a US government intelligence analyst, is arrested on charges of passing classified security information to Israel, a US ally. Pollard is taken into custody outside the Israeli Embassy after he tried to seek asylum, and will later be sentenced to life in prison..

Jonathan Jay Pollard is a former intelligence analyst for the United States government. In 1987, as part of a plea agreement, Pollard pleaded guilty to spying for and providing top-secret classified information to Israel. He was sentenced to life in prison for violations of the Espionage Act.

1987: In 1987, as part of a plea agreement, Pollard pleaded guilty to spying for and providing top-secret classified information to Israel.

1989: In 1989 Pollard’s attorneys filed a motion for withdrawal of his guilty plea and trial by jury due to the government’s failure to abide by terms of the plea agreement.

2006: In February 2006, his attorneys filed a petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court regarding access to the classified documents.

2010: The New York Times reported on September 21, 2010, that the Israeli government (again under Netanyahu) informally proposed that Pollard be released as a reward to Israel for extending by three months a halt to new settlements in occupied territories.

2015: A bill introduced in the Knesset in November 2015 would, if passed, authorize the Israeli government to fund Pollard’s housing and medical expenses, and pay him a monthly stipend, for the remainder of his life.

— Source: wiki/Jonathan_Pollard

(1995) Three warring Balkan states make peace

With US President Bill Clinton brokering the peace plan, Bosnian, Serb, and Croat leaders accept the Dayton Accords, which ends four years of a fighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The war, the worst in Europe since WWII, has killed an estimated 200,000 people and included campaigns of ethnic cleansing. .

The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, Dayton Accords, Paris Protocol or Dayton-Paris Agreement, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, United States, in November 1995, and formally signed in Paris on 14 December 1995. These accords put an end to the 3 1⁄2-year-long Bosnian War, one of the Yugoslav Wars.

New Jersey ratifies the Bill of Rights, a collection of amendments written by James Madison to ease concerns that the US Constitution had invested the federal government with too much power. New Jersey does, however, reject one of the original 12 amendments: Article II, which regulated congressional pay raises..

The Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the oftentimes bitter 1787–88 battle over ratification of the U.S. Constitution, and crafted to address the objections raised by Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights amendments add to the Constitution specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government’s power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically delegated to Congress by the Constitution are reserved for the states or the people. The concepts codified in these amendments are built upon those found in several earlier documents, including the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the English Bill of Rights 1689, along with earlier documents such as Magna Carta (1215).

Created: September 25, 1789Ratified: December 15, 1791Location: National ArchivesAuthor: James Madison

— Source: wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights

(1820) Sperm whale sinks whaling ship

An 80-ton sperm whale rams and sinks a whaleship, the Essex, from Massachusetts. Twenty crewmembers escape in open boats, but only five will survive the harrowing three months adrift; three others will be rescued off an island. Herman Melville will base his novel ‘Moby-Dick’ on this true-life tale..

Essex was an American whaler from Nantucket, Massachusetts, launched in 1799. While under the command of Captain George Pollard, Jr., in 1820 a sperm whale attacked and sank her. The sinking stranded the twenty-man crew in the southern Pacific Ocean with little food and water. During the 95 days that the survivors were at sea, they ate the bodies of five crewmen who had died. When that was insufficient, members of the crew drew lots to determine whom they would sacrifice so that the others could live. A total of seven crew members were cannibalized before the eight survivors were rescued. First mate Owen Chase and cabin boy Thomas Nickerson wrote accounts of their ordeal; these accounts inspired Herman Melville to write his famous 1851 novel Moby-Dick.

Length: 88′ 7″ (27 m)Displacement: 238 tonLaunched: 1799

— Source: wiki/Essex_(whaleship)

(1945) Nazi leaders go on trial for World War II atrocities

Judges from the US, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union preside over the military tribunals in Nuremburg opening today to try Nazi officials for crimes against humanity, among other charges. Twelve Nazi leaders will be sentenced to death. Adolf Hitler won’t be among them, having already shot himself..

The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the Allied forces after World War II, which were most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, judicial and economic leadership of Nazi Germany who planned, carried out, or otherwise participated in The Holocaust and other war crimes. The trials were held in the city of Nuremberg, Germany.

Start date: Nov 20, 1945End date: Oct 01, 1946

— Source: wiki/Nuremberg_trials

(1995) Princess Diana admits she had an affair

Britain’s Princess Diana speaks candidly about her troubled marriage with Prince Charles in a widely watched BBC interview. Diana admits to infidelity and talks about her struggles with depression and bulimia. She also predicts she will never be queen of England, but hopes to be “queen of people’s hearts.”.

Diana, Princess of Wales, has spoken openly for the first time about her separation from the Prince of Wales in a frank interview for the BBC’s Panorama programme.

During her hour-long conversation with BBC reporter Martin Bashir, she admitted to an adulterous affair with her riding instructor, James Hewitt.

She also described her hurt at her husband’s relationship with long-term friend Camilla Parker-Bowles, but said she did not want to divorce.

The Princess spoke freely about her depression and bulimia, her children, the media and the future of the monarchy.

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